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1. If you missed Brian Smith's victory lane celebration after he won the 410 Sprint feature Friday night at Attica Raceway Park, then you missed the greatest celebration I have ever seen in my 33 years. In a true "David vs. Goliath" battle, the under-funded Smith captured his second career win at Attica and made sure the fans wouldn't forget it any time soon. After climbing from his car in winner's circle, Smith ran down the horse track to a long stretch of muddy mess, did a forward flip onto his back and into the ginormous mud puddle. He topped it off with a muddy snow angel, much to the delight of the crowd. Everyone enjoys seeing an underdog get a win ... and everyone likes an enthusiastic driver in victory lane. Friday night at Attica, they saw both all wrapped up into one. The video is available here (the celebration starts right around the 10:00 mark).
2. The Sunoco ALMS feature at Attica didn't disappoint as Jon Henry and Jeep Van Wormer battled back-and-forth, side-by-side throughout the middle stages of the race. Throw in a hard charging Matt Miller, who started 18th, and you had an instant classic with Henry coming out on top for his first win of 2013. The Late Model and 410 Sprint features at Attica Friday just help prove what I have said the last few years ... week in and week out, Attica Raceway Park is one of the best and raciest tracks in the entire country. I'm fortunate to live so close.
3. Not to be outdone, Eldora finally got their 60th season opener in the books. While the Mods and Stocks put on their usual good shows, it was the Tuff Trucks who stole the spotlight. Although only nine drivers started their 15-lap feature, the race amongst the top four/five was as good as you'll see anywhere with side-by-side racing and slicing and dicing for the win. The video is here and the Truck A-Feature starts right around the 7:10 mark.
4. Celebrating his 92nd birthday (and his 66th wedding anniversary to wife Bernice), Earl Baltes was in attendance Saturday night at Eldora. I'm truly blessed to announce at the house he built and it's always good to have him and Bernice at the track.
5. Another week in the Dirt Late Model world and another week of tire doping infractions. I'm not sure who or what to believe anymore. And I'll just leave it at that.
1. It's getting old hearing the same song over and over again, but the weather won out at most tracks for yet another weekend. Locally, Fremont was able to open the gates Saturday night with tim Shaffer winning the 410 A-Main. Regionally, places like Hilltop, Florence, Lawrenceburg, and Twin Cities got their shows in. But, in all, the entire weekend was pretty much wiped out. The good news is, the weather forecast for this weekend looks much more favorable ... just in time for the Sunoco ALMS race at Attica Friday night.
2. Speaking of Twin Cities, I've gotta make it down there sometime this year. They're getting 20 cars a week in each of their classes, and Jeremy Hines is on a roll in the Late Model division, winning four straight. They have a UMP SummerNationals race on Thursday, July 18 if you're looking for a date to circle on your calendar.
3. Kudos go out to Jeff Babcock on his UMP Modified victory Saturday night at Lawrenceburg Speedway. The win came in crowd-pleasing fashion as Babcock wowed the fans with a last lap pass of his Best Performance Motorsports teammate Matt Westfall. The win was Babcock's second of the year (Florence, April 6).
4. A sentimental kudos goes out to Davey Johnson on his ULMS win Saturday night at Sharon. When I was a kid, "The Juice" was always one of my favorite drivers. As a journalist and announcer, I never play favorites. Ever. But it sure was nice to see Davey J. back in victory lane at a sanctioned event this weekend.
5. Last but not least, a work conference/presentation in Portland, Oregon will most likely allow me to visit a few new states and race tracks at the end of May. More info to come in the coming weeks on this epic trip....
1. Mother Nature was the big winner in this area, taking the checkered at Attica, Eldora, Moler, and other tracks. It's that time of year where the weather is warm and, for the most part, perfect during the week then cold and miserable on the weekends. Check out the local forecast for the next five days and you'll see what I mean.
2. Typically a UMP stalwart, Rusty Schlenk opted to race at an unsanctioned Late Model track Saturday night. The former UMP National Champion headed to Brownstown Saturday evening, despite Twin Cities racing UMP sanctioned Late Models less than 30 miles away from Schlenk's destination.
3. We've been hearing good things about Brad McCown's Jackson County Speedway. The car counts have continued to rise from week one, and word is the racing has been pretty good too.
4. Crooksville, Ohio's Midway Speedway swung open the gates Friday night under the direction of Jerry Perrine. Although the car counts were low and the weather was cold, a hat tip is certainly in line for Perrine who's track was one of the select few that got to race this weekend.
5. It wasn't just the high car counts that made the NDRL debut spectacular, but the quality of cars at both Paducah and I-55 was off the charts. If this is what we can expected from John Kennedy's upstart series, I think we're all in for a treat.
